Registration

Calling All Children's Book Writers: Picture Book, Early Reader, Chapter Book, Middle Grade, Young Adult, New Adult… All genre’s welcome

Whether you’ve written a just handful of pages or you’re putting the finishing touches on your opus magnus, getting another set of eyes on your manuscript is a wise course of action. But who can you get or trust to be that second set of eyes? Family and friends run at the sight of you and even when they do read it, they say heartwarming, but ultimately useless things like, “That’s nice.” That’s where I come in.

I, Glenn Hanna will hosting the Children Book Writers of Los Angeles (CBA-LA) Saturday critique from 11am to 2pm at the LA Public Library, Harbor Gateway Branch, 24000 S Western Ave in the East Conference Room.

If you’ve been to a Saturday critique before, then you know the drill. If you’ve never attended one, let me explain how it goes.

When to arrive:

On time! Please! I know it’s fashionable to be ten to fifteen minutes late in LA but the time you waste is the time you take from yourself and the others in the group. My formula is simple. I take the time we have and divide it among the people there. More time we have, more time for all.

What to bring:

1. If you’re writing a novel, then bring the first ten pages or the first chapter, whichever’s shorter. If you’re writing a picture book, then bring the whole thing. And please format your manuscript professionally: Courier or Times New Roman 12 pt font, double spaced, single sided, 1 inch margins on white paper

2. Copies of your manuscript. Please check back on this website to see how many are attending so that you know how many copies to bring.

3. A pen or pencil or something with which to take notes. If you’re the oral type, by all means you may bring a tape recorder.

4. A notebook (optional): If you want to take notes on the comments you receive a notebook might come in handy, but it’s not necessary. The reason we require you bring copies for everyone is because the others will write down their comments on those copies and then give them back to you to take home and read.

5. An open mind. You may think a critique is a bunch of people sitting around insulting the baby you took great pains to write but that’s not the CBW-LA way and it’s not my way. Before we begin I will give specific instructions on how we will conducting ourselves but the gist of it is, the point of this critique is to help you write what you want to write better. To offer solutions and encouragement and guidance, not ridicule. All I ask is that you open your mind and listen to what others are saying. You don’t have to take any of the advice offered but you’ll never know what value it is if you don’t hear it in the first place.

Please do not just show up. If you wish to attend, register. If no one registers by the previous Friday night, I will cancel the event. If for any reason you cannot attend, please email me at cbwla2012@gmail.com. ASAP, so I can free up the space for someone else to attend. And if you have any questions, you can reach me there as well.